The ORBIS DC-10-10 has been at YYZ for a few days now and is currently in the GTAA hangar.

Myself and three other A.Netters (Lnglive1011yyz, Cruiser & AOMlover) had the privilege of being given personal attention from Bruce (Pilot) and also the Engineer (Apologies for forgetting his name).

We were given the history of this unique aircraft, a description of the services they provide and the Countries which they have visited on this worthwhile cause on their fight against preventitive blindness.

We also had the pleasure of being allowed time in the cockpit for photographs of us at the controls.

We were also given a tour by the ORBIS staff of the "operations" area of the aircraft including the optical diagnostics area and of the surgery/recovery area.

I had mentioned to Bruce that he should look up Airliners.net as they would find some interesting photos of their aircraft in operation.

In the hope that the staff happen to visit this site, I decided to post this thank you note on behalf of the four of us, for spending the time with these four enthusiasts and making our otherwise mundane Sunday afternoon at YYZ all that more interesting.

Thank you ORBIS and keep up the great work!

-Alan

ps: Maybe Mike, James or Clement can post some photos of the four of us enjoying ourselves....since I have dial up.

Good to hear that you enjoyed your visit! Orbis is a great organisation. I visited them in Bulgaria last June and had an interesting and really good time there. The pilots were Fedex, right? Were some permanent aircraft staff there too?

Yes, the doctors and part of the medical and technical staff are volunteers too. They usualy do these missions during their holiday. There is also a small core team on the plane, these guys are employed by Orbis.

Bruce with the Orbis team was fantastic.. he fielded our questions with finesse, and even provided some info to us that we didn't know!

The whole experience was quite inspiring.. For someone like myself, who has only been that close to a plane (except for boarding of course) once before, the experience was absolutely fantastic. Being able to park my ass in the Captains seat, and look around, was simply amazing..

When I walked into the hangar, and the view of the CF6 engine sitting there in front of me, and then the nose.. simply awed me. I literally had to snap myself out of my fog, to continue on..

Spending the day with Cruiser, AOMlover and 808TWA was also a treat.. AOMlover was in YYZ for schooling, (visiting from France) and it was extra special to have him there as well for this.. as it's rare for us!

Thanks to the Orbis crew, the volunteer pilots from FedEx, and to my 'travel mates' for the day, it was a great day had by all!

I have to echo the comments above. I believe that it will still be at YYZ tomorrow, although you would have to check on their website. The plane was simply amazing and the crew went out of their way to ensure that we got all of the pictures we needed.

The funniest quote of the day had to be when Lnglive1011yyz and I were taking photos in the cockpit and the pilot came back in after 5 minutes and said "Hey, are you guys trying to rewire the cockpit on me while I am out chatting with your friends?" Obviously, we just wanted to get about 1000 photos from all different angles.

If anyone has a chance to take a tour as it makes it across Canada, it really is worth the time to go for a tour. The pilots will go out of their way to ensure that they answer any and all questions you have about the plane.

Cheers,
James

Leahy on Per Seat Costs: "Have you seen the B-2 fly-by at almost US$1bn a copy? It has only 2 seats!"

Hello everyone, thank you for your nice words about ORBIS. To fill in some of the blanks:
- our call sign is 'orbis 1' (see that this info has already been given - sorry!)
- the pilots are all volunteers, most of them from FedEx. FedEx are also - as mentioned - saving us a mint of money in spare parts and other services.
- the eye doctors on board: there is a core of 'staff' ophthalmologist, employed by ORBIS. Additionally, for each training program overseas there is a group of volunteer ophthalmologists (mainly from the US and UK but also from elsewhere in Europe, Americas and India), chosen on the basis of what the 'host' hospital's training needs are.

Schedule: after the current 'goodwill' (i.e., for public relations and fundraising) visit to Canada, the FEH (Flying Eye Hospital) will move to Africa for proper sight-saving training programs in that continent: in ADD for the first two week in July, then in ACC (8 - 25 Aug), then on to ILR for the first ten days of September. From there the FEH will reposition to Asia: three days 'goodwill visit' to DXB on the way, then our very first, historical training program in Da Nang (DAD), Vietnam, the same runway from where the last US-registered aircraft to take off was either a USAF strategic bomber or a Marine Corps fighter...this time the FEH will spend ten days providing advanced training to the eye doctors of the Da Nang Eye Hospital, who have invited us there.
After that, China: both training and 'goodwill' programs in CSX, WUH, PVG and MFM, until the end of the year.

I was lucky to tour the aircraft in the Hangar at Kai Tak airport and at the Hangar at C.L.K.

For the record most of the money and support to get this aircraft came from Hong Kong. When they retired the DC-8 they wanted to put it on display in HKG but the idiots in the planning department made a fuss and it ended up in Beijing.